From my experience, plenty of American opera fans grumble when directors and designers decide to move a story to a different setting or era than the one presented at an opera’s premiere, whether that happened 100 years ago or 250. Meanwhile, European audiences seem far more accustomed to the new; pick up some DVDs of productions from some of that continent’s legendary companies and you’ll often find them doing some pretty wild stuff with familiar titles.
But there are plenty of relatively laissez-faire opera lovers who say, “Whatever. Just don’t mess with the music.” To them, I recommend Minnesota Opera’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” which is running for a fortnight at St. Paul’s Ordway Music Theater. Its three leads do magnificent things with Verdi’s arias and duets, and the minor characters, chorus and orchestra are all in fine form for Michael Christie’s final production as the company’s music director.
And to those who prefer traditional stagings, I say: This production is unlikely to change your view. It takes the tale of the jester in an Italian aristocrat’s court and his naïve daughter who succumbs to seduction and places it within some variation on a 20th-century totalitarian state. With dashes of Nazism here, Soviet bloc elements there and the walls bearing giant portraits of the dictator in charge, a la Mao and Stalin, the dim, dark design gives off a retro vibe that’s slight on color and lends very little fresh insight to Verdi’s opera. Throw in director Austin Regan’s evident attempts to express something about mistreatment of women by an old boys’ network, and it all comes off as a concept in search of the right opera. And I’m not sure that “Rigoletto” is it.
Not that bleakness is a bad idea for this opera, for the court of the Duke of Mantua has never been a very pleasant place in any production. The Duke is out to bed any woman who visits, and a mean-spirited tone permeates the place, exacerbated by the widely despised jester, Rigoletto, whose humor is all about insults and mockery. Everyone seems miserably unhappy, save for the jester when he slips off to visit the daughter he keeps in hiding. Alas, the Duke is out to seduce her while disguised as a student. There’s a curse, a kidnapping, a probable sexual assault and a vow of vengeance.
With 41 cast members, the stage frequently gets pretty crowded. But Verdi’s best music is almost invariably delivered by Rigoletto, daughter Gilda and the Duke. Among the three, I was most impressed by soprano Marie-Eve Munger as Gilda. Seldom will you hear Gilda’s ascents up the scale handled with such tenderness and fluidity. Gilda’s the only endearing character on stage, and Munger makes her the embodiment of sweet adolescent innocence.
Yes, the Duke is a cad, but Joshua Dennis makes his foxy charms palpable. Dennis has the kind of full, buoyant tenor voice ideal for this role, and each of his arias is a treat, even when he’s singing despicable lyrics. So engaging is he that you almost want to believe that he can change his ways. Almost.
For raw power, no voice on stage can match that of baritone Olafur Sigurdarson, who fills the hall with his anguished arias but also provides this production’s most moving moments in tandem with Munger on three beautiful duets. When he has shadowy exchanges with bass Matt Boehler as a hired assassin, there’s some marvelous low-range menace afoot. As the assassin’s sister, Nadia Fayad is exceptional in a memorable quartet with Munger, Dennis and Sigurdarson.
While the staging concept may work for you or may not, “Rigoletto” still has some of the best music Verdi ever wrote. And this cast and orchestra won’t let you forget that.
If You Go
What: Minnesota Opera’s “Rigoletto”
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. March 27, 29 and 31
Where: Ordway Music Theater, 345 Washington St., St. Paul
Tickets: $200-$25, available at 612-333-6669 or mnopera.org
Capsule: The design doesn’t take flight, but the voices certainly do.
